NATO adds muscle to air battle

Bacon says the United States is sending more F-16 fighter jets to aid the NATO campaign RELATED VIDEO CNN Fortune's James Hattori reports on Yugoslavia's economy (April 10) Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Charles Bierbauer looks at the additional firepower headed to the Balkans from the United States (April 10) Windows Media 28K 80K War is overshadowing the Orthodox Church's most holy day, as CNN's Peter Humi reports from Paris (April 10) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Yugoslavia, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K IMAGE GALLERY: Burning flags and rock concerts: Protesting the NATO strikes Devastation of Kosovo capital The Serbs and Kosovo  ALSO Congress gears for debate over ground troops in Kosovo Refugee situation improves; U.S. says some used as shields Los Angeles rallies for captured U.S. servicemen  MESSAGE BOARD Crisis in Kosovo  MAPS NATO officials describe attacks from day one through day 17

Yugoslavs rally on bridge as Orthodox Easter dawns

April 10, 1999
Web posted at: 9:05 p.m. EDT (0105 GMT)

In this story: Defiance and music in Belgrade Additional firepower headed for Balkans NATO unity high RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Claiming more than two weeks of bombing have put Yugoslav troops on the defensive, NATO beefed up its air armada Saturday in preparation for more attacks in the Balkans.

U.S. officials announced plans to put another 82 planes into the allied air campaign, and other countries were expected to follow suit quickly, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said Saturday.

NATO raids have hit roads and bridges needed to resupply troops in the field, halved the amount of fuel available for the Yugoslav army, and severely disrupted communications and intelligence, allied military spokesman Col. Konrad Freytag said Saturday.

Yugoslav commanders in Kosovo are parking tanks and armored vehicles between village houses in an attempt to protect them from missiles, Freytag said.

Worsening weather grounded three of four planned waves of strike planes on Saturday, Freytag said. But the attacks, which included cruise missiles launched from ships in the Adriatic Sea, have forced the Yugoslav army into a defensive posture in Kosovo, he said.

"Overall, the Yugoslav forces appeared to be focusing on defensive and force protection measures against NATO attacks," he said.

The airstrikes were expected to continue into Sunday, when the Serbian Orthodox church celebrates Easter.

Defiance and music in Belgrade

By late in the day, air raid sirens sounded across Belgrade and hundreds of demonstrators gathered on a main bridge in the capital to protest airstrikes on bridges throughout the country.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered on the Branko bridge over the Sava River, which divides old and new Belgrade. Pop music concerts and speeches on key bridges around the city have become almost nightly rituals of defiance in the Yugoslav capital.

NATO says the bombardment will continue until Milosevic agrees to all the terms of a peace plan outlined for Kosovo, which aims to end fighting between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo.

The terms include an end to attacks on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops and the admission of a NATO-led peacekeeping force. Yugoslav authorities have consistently refused to allow an international contingent on its soil.

Meanwhile, a Yugoslav diplomat Saturday denounced as "slanderous" accusations of atrocities against civilians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

"It is totally one slanderous accusation that we have to do anything with that," Vladislav Jovanovic, the Yugoslav charge d'affaires at the United Nations, said Saturday. "We are not at all turned against our people."

On Saturday, Serbian television showed pictures of moderate Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova meeting with top Belgrade officials -- the fourth time he has been seen on TV here since the NATO campaign began more than two weeks ago.

Yugoslav authorities have said Rugova plays a pivotal role in negotiating a peaceful settlement to the Kosovo crisis. NATO is skeptical whether Rugova is free to speak his mind -- and says officials may be coercing him into making positive statements.

Additional firepower headed for Balkans

The Pentagon released these images of a NATO attack on Yugoslav army barracks

The NATO air armada arrayed against Yugoslavia will soon include some 700 aircraft, including heavy bombers based in Britain, fighter-bombers flying from Italy and strike planes on U.S., British and French carriers in the Adriatic Sea.

The new U.S. forces coming into the fight include 24 F-16CJ anti-radar aircraft, four more A-10 ground attack planes, six EA-6B electronic warfare planes, 41 aerial tankers and seven transports.

"Basically, it will allow us to increase the intensity of the air campaign over Kosovo and Yugoslavia," Bacon told reporters at the Pentagon.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said NATO bombs and missiles have badly damaged the central command system for Yugoslavia's air defense and wiped out about half of the country's fleet of top-of-the-line fighter jets, the Russian-built MiG-29.

"In the last two weeks we have inflicted a hell of a lot of damage, quite frankly, on the Yugoslav armed forces," he said.

NATO unity high

NATO unity appeared strong Saturday as top allied diplomats prepared for a Monday meeting in Brussels.

Art Eggleton, Canada's minister of National Defense, voiced his country's continuing support and involvement in NATO airstrikes on Saturday after a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen at the Pentagon.

And fears that Russia might intervene on behalf of its historic allies, the Serbs, seemed to ease slightly Saturday.

Russia has strenuously objected to the NATO campaign, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin warned Friday that the conflict could lead to a world war.

But on Saturday, Russia's foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, assured British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook "that Russia had no intention of becoming involved in any confrontation in the Balkans and no wish to see any escalation," British Armed Forces Minister Doug Henderson said.

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